Kitchen & Dining

From breakfast mugs to table runners: what Kitchen & Dining covers

Kitchen & Dining is the broad home for our tableware. Think of it as a map of the whole table; the main types keep the finer detail in ranges of their own. The largest groups are bowls, cups, plates and mugs, the pieces that get used several times a day. Around them sit serving platters, serveware and trays for carrying food to the table, jugs for milk at breakfast or water at dinner, and teapots for a proper pot of tea.

For drinks there is glassware, drinkware and barware, including plenty of clear glass. For the table itself we stock napkins, placemats, coasters and table runners to protect its surface and pull a setting together. In the kitchen, storage jars keep coffee, sugar and store-cupboard staples tidy on the worktop, some with lids, and small kitchen accessories cover the useful extras.

Some of the range is easy to miss. We stock children's tableware for the nursery and the family table, and Christmas designs for festive meals. For anyone starting from scratch, a few complete tableware sets bring matching pieces together in one order.

What is stoneware, the clay behind most of our crockery?

Stoneware is clay fired at a high temperature until it turns dense and hard. That firing gives it a sturdy, weighty feel and a body that copes well with daily meals, which is why it makes up most of our crockery. Compared with porcelain it is heavier and more rustic, with a softer, earthier look; compared with earthenware it is tougher and less porous. It also takes glaze well, which is where so much of its colour and character comes from.

A few pieces are porcelain or dolomite instead, and the material row on the product page says which. Not everything in the range is ceramic, either. We also stock pieces in glass, metal, wood and marble, and the table textiles bring in fabric. As a rule, wood and marble are better wiped clean and dried than put through a dishwasher, but the care rows on the product page have the final say.

Reactive glaze, crackle and hand painting: how our crockery is finished

Many of our pieces are finished in reactive glaze. It is a glaze that moves in the kiln as it fires, running and pooling, so colour tends to gather in the curves and thin out on the rims and edges. Because of this, colour can vary noticeably from one item to the next. If you are buying several, expect a family likeness rather than identical twins.

Solid coloured glaze is the steadier choice: an even, single colour that is easier to match across a set. Crackle glaze is covered in a fine web of lines, and the crackle can intensify as the piece is used, so it gathers character over time.

Hand painting, hand stamping and hand decoration appear across the range, sometimes as hand-painted details over a printed pattern. Work done by hand means small differences between pieces are to be expected, and they are part of the appeal.

Colour runs from blues and greens through brown, rose, white and grey to yellow, gold, red, black and orange, with plenty of multi-coloured designs and some natural and silver tones too.

Dishwasher, microwave and oven: why care differs across Kitchen & Dining

Care is often the question that decides a purchase, so we keep the answer in one place. The care rows on most product pages say yes or no for food, dishwasher, microwave and oven use. Many pieces in the range are marked dishwasher safe, many microwave safe and many oven safe, but plenty are marked no, so the answer varies from piece to piece. Check the rows for the exact piece, not its neighbour.

Most pieces carry a food safe row marked yes. A handful are marked no; keep those for display rather than for serving food. Where a piece is marked no for the dishwasher, wash it by hand in warm soapy water with a soft cloth and dry it straight away. Where it is marked no for the microwave, warm the food in another dish and use the piece for serving. Oven safe refers to the oven only, so keep ceramic pieces off the hob.

Like any ceramic, stoneware dislikes sudden jumps in temperature. Let a dish come to room temperature before it goes from the fridge into a hot oven, and warm a cold teapot with a splash of hot water before you fill it. On hand-painted and crackle pieces, a gentle wash keeps the surface looking its best for longer.

Cups or mugs, plates or bowls: choosing for the way you eat

Start with how you actually eat and drink. A cup usually holds less than a mug, which suits espresso, a flat white or a quick cup of tea; a mug suits a long brew or hot chocolate on a cold evening. Where we have it, the capacity is given in millilitres, so fill your favourite mug from a measuring jug and compare.

For plates and bowls, the diameter tells you the size across. Lay a tape measure over the plates you use now, and check the ones you like against your cupboard shelves and dishwasher racks before you order. A wide, shallow bowl suits pasta and salad, a deeper one soup, cereal and noodles. Side plates handle toast, cake and starters, while larger plates carry a main course.

Then think about sets. Some pieces come as sets of two, three, four, six or twelve, which keeps a table matching without hunting for extras, and the product page gives the set size. Our complete tableware sets suit a first home or a fresh start. If you like a mixed table, choosing from two or three designs that share a colour gives you more freedom.

Bringing crockery, glassware and textiles together on one table

The easiest way to make different pieces look as if they belong is to choose one thread and follow it. That might be a colour, so plates, mugs and a jug in different blues read as one table, or a glaze, so reactive-glaze pieces in several shades share the same pooled finish. Hand-painted pieces look their best beside plainer ones, which give the pattern room.

Textiles do a lot of the work. A table runner gives a long table a centre line for serving platters, jugs and a teapot; placemats mark out the places; napkins add a note of colour; and coasters keep hot mugs and cold glasses off the wood. Clear glassware goes with any crockery, so it is a safe place to start when the plates are busy.

When December comes, our Christmas designs let you change a few pieces rather than the whole table, and children's tableware can sit beside the grown-up plates at a family meal. If you are ordering several pieces at once, it helps to know we offer free delivery worldwide on all orders over £99. Dispatch estimates are shown on each product page.